04 Feb 10 Swing like Basie before you can fly like Lester
“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”
- Thoreau
I’ve just left my job at Social Media Group after two great years. I was originally hired as the Director of Project Management but somehow along the way I added Finance, HR, IT and some Product Development to my list of responsibilities and my title changed to Director of Operations.
Now, for as long as I’ve been working, I can’t say I have ever had much time for Operations. They were always the folks who tried to tell you what you couldn’t and shouldn’t do. They controlled access to all the cool stuff and spent an awful lot of time trying to prevent you from getting to it. Yet, here I was, Director of Operations at Social Media Group, and it seemed that the only time that people talked to me was when something was broken or they wanted money.
So there I was, driving back from the Toronto office last summer after a day of dealing with slow PC’s, missing printer drivers, a flakey wireless network and an erratic phone system, when April in Paris by the Count Basie Orchestra popped up on my playlist. While I’m not a big fan of swing bands, this tune swings so hard it made it impossible for me to keep feeling sorry for myself. But as I listened to Thad Jones, Benny Powell and the rest of the band swinging it got me wondering if it would sound quite as good without the legendary Basie rhythm to lay the foundation. While this recording doesn’t feature the “All-American Rhythm Section” of the Count, Walter Page, Freddie Green and Jo Jones, widely recognized as the best ever in jazz, there is no mistaking the classic Basie sound on this tune.
The rhythm section in a band is a bit like the plumbing in your home….you don’t think about it when it’s working but you know when it’s broken, a bit like Operations really. It sets the tempo and keeps the time. You don’t need a trained ear to know when a rhythm section isn’t working, the beat sounds ragged, the tempo is inconsistent, and everything just feels out of sync. But when it clicks you don’t even notice the drums, bass, guitar and/or piano, instead you can focus on the lead instrument or voice playing the melody, again, just like Operations. This epiphany has given me a new found respect for Operations and what they do. It’s a thankless job but if all the pieces, Finance, HR, IT, Facilities etc., aren’t working together, the rest of the organization has a very shaky foundation to build on.
The Basie band produced some absolutely brilliant musicians and singers like Lester Young, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Jimmy “Mr Five by Five” Rushing and Joe Williams but I wonder if their careers would have been quite as notable if they didn’t have the Basie rhythm supporting them early on.Sheer talent will always find a way to shine but there is no doubt in my mind that if an organization wants to soar like Lester they should probably first learn to swing like Basie.
